The city of Mountain View has a new approach for saving taxpayer money on jail expenses. On Monday they adopted a plan that would add a two dollar surcharge onto the court fees for the defendant criminal cases in Howell County. The money will go towards housing and identifying prisoners. Police Chief Jamie Perkins, who originally proposed the plan to the city council, believes the program could work well even in a larger city like Columbia.
“I actually think it would be smooth sailing. I can’t see any foreseeable problems. It’s a two dollar additional fee and it goes to pay for basically housing and identification of prisoners.” Perkins said.
Both Howell and Boone Counties spend roughly forty dollars per day on each prisoner in their respective jails. Mountain View has also implemented a program where nonviolent offenders can do community service in order to pay off court costs.